The confidence that Summer has gained over the decades has taken practice, lessons that were learned after the most traumatic times of her life. Being a young vampire didnât help with dealing with her emotions, watching her human friends drop dead like flies. The AIDS epidemic struck the LGBTQ+ community like a nuclear bomb. Summer lost almost everyone that she cared about, she didnât want to turn off her emotions. Her human friends didnât get to, she shouldnât have to either.Â
That emotional vulnerability and sensitivity hit her like a brick wall when she woke up in the morning. Summer felt weak, hopeless, defeated. Memories rushing in of members of her chosen family and community being sick, dying in the street, she was 25 again. Her first love had just died in her arms. Running onto the pier, to look out at the sea, the sun reflecting on it, she burst into tears. âEmma!â Taking deep breaths in between teary cries, she closes her eyes. âNo!â Holding her stomach, she felt like she had been stabbed. âTheyâre gone. Theyâre dead, a slow, painful death.â